Inspiring Conversations with Tabby Biddle of Tabby Biddle | Women’s Thought Leadership & Public Speaking

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tabby Biddle.

Hi Tabby, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The thread that connects everything I do today is something I first discovered when I was 18 years old: my voice matters.

As a first-year college student enrolled in Government 101, on the first day of class, my professors talked about what it meant to participate in a democracy. They told us that as citizens, our vote mattered, and so did our voice. Your voice matters, they told us. I got chills when they said that because up until that point, I couldn’t remember anyone ever telling me that my voice mattered.

Within days, I changed my major from English to Government.

That decision opened an entirely new world for me. I became involved in political organizing on campus, interned in the political division at CNN’s Washington bureau, and after college worked for the Women’s Campaign Fund, supporting women running for political office. I later worked on a presidential inaugural committee as a radio reporter and considered pursuing a political career in Washington.

But ultimately, I realized politics wasn’t where I wanted to spend my life and center my career. I was much more drawn to a career and people who were helping us understand one another across cultures, like writers, journalists, photographers, and storytellers. So I took a different path and spent the next several years working at the National Geographic Society in Washington.

What I didn’t understand yet was how much more there was for me to discover about voice.

Years later, after traveling in Asia and the Middle East, living in London, earning my Masters degree in Education, and moving from New York to Los Angeles, I was working as an early childhood education teacher when I began having a very strong sense that I needed to move beyond the four walls of my classroom and use my voice on a larger platform. I didn’t know what that meant. I only knew I needed to follow it, so I made the somewhat terrifying decision not to renew my teaching contract without another job lined up.

What followed was a profound spiritual awakening that completely redirected my life.

I experienced what I described at the time as an “awakening to the Goddess.” I became immersed in learning about the pre-patriarchal history of the feminine and traditions of female spiritual leadership and authority. At the same time, I was awakening to the human rights abuses women and girls were experiencing around the world, and to the degree to which women’s voices, bodies, and experiences had been devalued throughout much of our patriarchal history.

I began looking at my own upbringing differently, too. I was the youngest child and only girl in a family with a long lineage of male leaders, including military leaders, financial leaders, diplomats, politicians, lawyers, university founders, and philanthropists. There was much in that history to be proud of, but I also began to notice how women were largely absent from the story.

I started connecting that larger history to something I had experienced personally. I had grown up believing that as a girl I could accomplish anything I worked hard enough for, but that wasn’t quite the same thing as believing that my ideas, perspective, and voice carried authority.

That realization changed the direction of my life and career, and at the same time, brought me back to roots of what I learned in my Government 101 class.

I began writing and speaking about women’s voices, leadership, and representation. Over time, I came to understand “having a voice” much more broadly than I had as that 18-year-old Government student. You don’t have to run for office or work in politics to have a public voice. Every time a woman brings her ideas, expertise, lived experience, and perspective into a conversation where it has been missing, she has the potential to influence what other people see as possible.

Eventually, my writing led me to two United Nations Foundation Press Fellowships reporting on women and girls, and my speaking led me to the TEDx stage and then to mentoring other women to bring their ideas to TEDx stages and other public platforms. I then created Women on Stage to help more women develop and share their ideas publicly, and over the years I’ve supported hundreds of women in developing their talks, strengthening their voices, and preparing to step onto local, national, and international stages.

Today, my work has expanded beyond TEDx. As a Women’s Thought Leadership Coach, TEDx Speaker Coach, and Public Speaking Mentor, I work with impact-driven women who want to become powerful public speakers, develop a Signature Talk, build and grow their thought leadership, and bring a bigger vision into the world. My clients have spoken at the United Nations, Fortune 500 companies, global conferences, Ivy-League universities, and on TEDx stages around the world.

When I look back, what once seemed like several different life and career paths, including politics, journalism, education, spirituality, women’s leadership, writing, and public speaking, actually feels like one, rich intersectional path.

At 18, someone told me for the first time that my voice mattered. Today, I have the privilege of helping other women recognize the power of their own voice.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t always been a smooth road. Becoming an entrepreneur and learning how to build and sustain my own business came with a significant learning curve. But one of the more personal challenges I’ve navigated has been understanding my own relationship with visibility and public voice.

For the first decade or more of this work, I was very publicly engaged as a writer, blogger, essayist, and speaker on women and girls’ human rights, feminine spirituality, and advancing women’s leadership. During that chapter, I published a bestselling book, became a TEDx speaker, and spent a great deal of time using my own voice in the public arena.

Then I entered a quieter season. My work increasingly shifted toward supporting other women to step into the public arena, particularly women whose voices and perspectives have historically been underrepresented. I discovered that I loved being behind the scenes, helping another woman clarify what she wants to say, trust the wisdom and value of her ideas and her voice, prepare to share her message with an audience, and become an influential public voice.

At times, I’ve wrestled with the feeling that because I believe so strongly in women’s public voices, I “should” be more publicly visible myself. I should be writing more, speaking more, or putting myself at the center of the conversation more often. I’ve had to learn to question that “should.”

Part of what feminine leadership means to me is honoring the different seasons and rhythms of our lives rather than believing leadership has to look one particular way. During this quieter chapter, I was navigating the pandemic along with everyone else, realizing how much I like spending lots of time with my husband and son, and simultaneously grieving the loss of both of my parents within a three-year period. Those experiences naturally brought me closer to home and changed where I wanted to place my energy.

I’ve come to understand that stepping back from the spotlight doesn’t necessarily mean stepping away from your purpose. Sometimes your role is to be the person speaking from the stage. Sometimes it’s to stand beside someone else as she prepares to step onto it.

I’m still navigating that balance. I suspect I always will. But I’ve become much more trusting of my own internal rhythm and less interested in measuring my contribution by how visible I am at any particular moment.

In many ways, that has become part of what I teach. I want the women I work with to become more visible and influential, but I don’t want them to pursue visibility simply for visibility’s sake. I want them to build public lives that are aligned with who they are, what they value, the contribution they want to make, and the season of life they’re actually living.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Tabby Biddle | Women’s Thought Leadership & Public Speaking?
My work is centered on helping impact-driven women become influential public voices.

I work with women who have an idea or perspective they want to share and are ready to bring their expertise, lived experience, and vision to a larger audience. Some women come to me because they want to give a TEDx talk. Others come to me because they want to develop a Signature Talk, become more confident and compelling speakers, build a public speaking career, grow their thought leadership in their field, and bring a larger vision into the world.

My clients include women leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, founders, authors, aspiring authors, academics, researchers, educators, advocates, changemakers, and women working across the nonprofit and social impact sectors. Many are feminists or are advancing ideas related to women’s leadership and gender equity, while others are bringing forward work in areas such as health and well-being, workplace culture, education, personal transformation, and social change.

I’m probably best known for my work with supporting women in becoming TEDx speakers. I’ve supported hundreds of women in developing their ideas, writing their talks, and preparing for TEDx events and other local, national, and international stages. Over time, my work has expanded to support women not only in getting onto a particular stage, but in thinking more expansively about the public voice and body of thought leadership they want to build and the legacy they want to leave.

What sets my public speaking mentorship approach apart is that I don’t begin with performance and public speaking skills. I begin with the woman and her ideas.

Before we think about how to deliver a talk, I want to understand: What do you really want to say? What is the message you feel called to share? What do you know because of the life you’ve lived and the work you’ve done? What perspective are you bringing that may be missing from the larger conversation? Who needs to hear it? And what do you want to make possible by sharing it?

From there, we shape her message, develop her talk, strengthen her public speaking skills, confidence, and presence as a speaker, and build a strategy for bringing her message into the world.

I’m also deeply committed to expanding whose voices and ideas are represented on public stages. Throughout my career, I’ve been especially interested in supporting women whose perspectives have historically been underrepresented in public conversations. I believe our collective understanding becomes richer when more women from different backgrounds, disciplines, cultures, generations, and lived experiences have the opportunity to contribute their knowledge, wisdom, and ideas into communities, workplaces, leadership, and the public conversation.

What I’m most proud of isn’t any one program or accomplishment. It’s watching what happens when a woman I’ve worked with begins to recognize the authority of her own voice. I’ve seen women go from questioning whether they have anything important to say to standing on major stages, sharing ideas that can truly change our world for the better.

Today, I support women through private mentorships and group programs, including Women on Stage, my TEDx-focused mentorship program, and Speak & Prosper, which supports women in developing their Signature Talks, speaker platforms, and public speaking careers. I also work privately with women at different stages of their journey, from developing a TEDx or Signature Talk to building a larger body of thought leadership or speaker platform, or bringing a legacy project or larger vision into the world.

Ultimately, I’m not interested in helping women become visible simply for the sake of being visible. I want to help women become more intentional and influential with their voices, so that their ideas, knowledge, wisdom, and perspectives can reach the people and places where they can make a real difference.

What makes you happy?
So many things make me happy. At the center of it all is probably connection. I love being with my family, whether we’re playing tennis together on the weekend, sitting around the dinner table, or gathering for our big family reunion in Rhode Island every summer with my siblings, sisters-in-law, nephews, cousins, and extended family.

I also find so much happiness in the simple rituals of everyday life. I practice yoga every morning. I take walks every day. I love being outside, walking, running, smelling the flowers, and taking in the beauty around me. I love to sing, and I’ve recently started taking piano lessons, which is bringing me a whole new kind of joy. And one of my favorite daily rituals is when my husband delivers a barista-level cup of tea to me in the morning as I’m getting my workday started. It’s a small act of love that makes me happy every single day.

My work also brings me a tremendous amount of happiness. I love working with a woman who has an idea she wants to share and helping her to trust herself and find the words to articulate her message so she can have the impact she’s here to make. There is nothing quite like seeing a woman I’ve worked with step onto a stage and shine. I never get tired of that.

And I love being in the company of women. Gathering with soulful, heartfelt, kind, loving, insightful women nourishes me deeply. I believe in sacred sisterhood and in the kind of connection that happens when women come together, support one another, laugh, share what’s real, witness, and celebrate each other.

I think what makes me happiest is being fully present for the people and experiences I love. Family, friendship, nature, movement, music, purposeful work, and the little rituals that make an ordinary day feel beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tabbybiddle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tabby_biddle/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tabbybiddle/

Image Credits
Caroline White Photography